App Review: Google Keep – A Note-Taking Service

This week saw the release of Google Keep, a Google-made note-taking service, and it comes with a very nice looking, powerful Android app that you can download right now and give it a whirl. Android has lacked a note-taking app since release, with users instead relying on external services like Colornote, Evernote, and so on. Google has finally made an official app, that integrates with Google Drive as well, and you can access it through this link, allowing you to make new notes, see the notes you’ve made through the Android app and organize your current notes.

In this post I’ll go through the Android app, which is very simple to use and extremely well-made. First of all, you can download it through this Play Store link. After you install it and run the app, you’ll see this screen, urging you to create a note:

So, just tap “Take a Note”, and you’ll see this screen, where you can set the title and content of the note:

Notice the two icons on the top right, they allow you to change the color of the note:

And to take a picture and associate it with the note:

The app also allows you to make lists, not simple text notes:

If you swipe a note from the main screen, you can also archive it, which removes it from the main screen and keep it it on a separate section:

It also comes with a very useful widget, that lets you take a note from your home screen, and lets you see your current notes.

So, the bottom line is that it’s a very solid note-taking app, and it comes with a free web interface and app by Google, so there’s no real reason not to use it. If you already use a note app, you should probably give Google Keep a try and see if you like it.